Tag Archives: reproduction

I originally posted the following information and statement onto my Facebook wall…

“Buck v. Bell: In 1925, Virginia, like a majority of states then, enacted eugenic sterilization laws. Viriginia’s law allowed state institutions to operate on individuals to prevent conception of what were believed to be ‘genetically inferior’ children. Charlottesville native, Carrie Buck (1906 – 1983), involuntarily committed to a state facility near Lynchburg, was chosen as the first person to be sterilized under the law. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, on 2 May 1927, affirmed the Virginia law. After Buck, mor than 8,000 other Virginians were sterlized before the most relevant parts of the act were repealed in 1974. Later evidence eventually showed that Buck and many others had no ‘hereditary defects.’ She is buried south of here.” (Department of Historic Resources, 2002)